Laura Robson Sacks Patrick Mouratoglou

Laura what are you thinking???

This guy worked wonders with Baghdatis and Pavlyuchenkova.

Do you agree with the decision?

How dare you insult a player without having tangible proof that she is taking the right decision?

Considering he got Baghdatis to Australian Open final and got Pavlyuchenkova from 300 to 24 in the world in a one year, I think the guy has more than enough creditentials. On the eve of a Grand Slam event without a coach at the age of 17, do you think it was the best decision?

Ok - The proof, though not tangible, is good enough!

I'll let you off on this one! 8)

I think that point was proof enough. I criticised the decision as she will be in the main draw of the Womens Singles at Wimbledon and I think the timing was poor. I don't think I have come across a young female tennis player who has made such a decision on the eve of a Grand Slam. I hope she does prove me wrong, but injuries have been the reason her ranking or performances are not where she would ideally like them to be. If she wins her first round encounter I will stand corrected.

I also moderated it as the wording needs to be less offensive

legendkillar wrote:I also moderated it as the wording needs to be less offensive

Don't worry about that! Honestly!

I have actually met her briefly last July as she came in our club to hand in our competitions trophies to the winners. Very nice girl....from the little I know.

She does come across as a nice girl from what I have seen on TV. I have seen her in the Hopman Cup. Don't see many of her performances, which is a shame.

Is this a recent coach who she has sacked or a long running coach?

At queens the commentators discussed that she had effectively been put back 2 years in development because her coach had not made sure that her physical training matched the rigours of the main tour and so she hadn't developed the required core strength necessary to be competitive, hence also the higher risk of injury.

to be honest getting rid and starting over might be the best thing for her.

Tom_____ wrote:Is this a recent coach who she has sacked or a long running coach?

At queens the commentators discussed that she had effectively been put back 2 years in development because her coach had not made sure that her physical training matched the rigours of the main tour and so she hadn't developed the required core strength necessary to be competitive, hence also the higher risk of injury.

to be honest getting rid and starting over might be the best thing for her.

This is the recent coach - it was he who said that her previous regime had set her back two years and that she needed to build up her physical strength and conditioning to survive at the top level of the women's game.

On 21 September 2010 Robson announced that she was to split with her coach Martijn Bok, as Bok was unable to meet her more demanding 2011 tour schedule: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/tennis/article-1313798/Laura-Robson-parting-coach-Martijn-Bok.html

For 2011 Robson hired a new coach, Frenchman Patrick Mouratoglou, and moved her working base to Paris.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/tennis/article-1342155/Laura-Robson-links-coach-Patrick-Mouratoglou-sets-sights-climbing-rankings.html
Considering her injuries the new coach (now sacked) has hardly had time to work with her.

Fully agree Nore Staat. He hasn't had time to do anything with her givven her recent injury setbacks. I am wondering whether outside influences have aided Laura into making such a decision on the eve of a Grand Slam. A very ballsy move in my book.

Anyway it is probably too soon to comment - maybe the new coach has been making mistakes as her form this year has not been great e.g. maybe she should be playing smaller tournaments to build up her points tally etc.

Yes it is worrying Legend but I think to be fair to Laura we need to look into it a little more.

I am not sure. There was so much to read into her victory in the juniors at Wimbledon. I am just wondering whether she is being patient enough. At 17 she has so much time on her hands and maybe after Wimbledon this year may have been the time to reflect on things. I just hope she isn't basing her progress on how well Watson has been doing.

Sometimes, players can be great and their coaches great too - but not together. This may be just a bad match-up.

"Ok - The proof, though not tangible, is good enough! I'll let you off on this one!"....lol, I bet LK expressed "Phew" at that one

You may be right LK - difficult to tell. The coach did seem to talk a lot of sense when he spoke a few weeks back on Radio Live 5. I just hope there are clear plans in what she does next.

It is such a critical time in her career and also given his pedigree as well, I felt at the time of his appointment she was lucky to have snapped him up. I do hope she does have a clear plan like you say.

This is the recent coach - it was he who said that her previous regime had set her back two years and that she needed to build up her physical strength and conditioning to survive at the top level of the women's game.

That sounds to me a reasonable coach..not genius, cause that where they are all going anyway. Fitter stronger.....the only way forward.

Not so long ago we coudl hear coaches talking about improving a FH, BH, strategy and so on...but not anymore....it's all about running down balls.

As Borg was saying already 30 years ago...tennis is a game of 100s of small sprints.

Tenez wrote:

This is the recent coach - it was he who said that her previous regime had set her back two years and that she needed to build up her physical strength and conditioning to survive at the top level of the women's game.

That sounds to me a reasonable coach..not genius, cause that where they are all going anyway. Fitter stronger.....the only way forward.

Not so long ago we coudl hear coaches talking about improving a FH, BH, strategy and so on...but not anymore....it's all about running down balls.

As Borg was saying already 30 years ago...tennis is a game of 100s of small sprints.

It is a case that fitness is part of the game. Conditioning at young age and getting the disciplines and regimes in are important. Look at Murray and how he has improved his conditioning and fitness over the years.

It is still important though that strokes are worked upon, but they are worked on at such a young age, that nowadays it is about maintaining fitness to stay match sharp.

Laura needs to realise that doing an Andy and firing your coach whenever things don't go your way has its pitfalls.

Peronally I think it wouid have done her good to have to play in the qualies for Wimbledon. Yes I know she won the junior event but that was two years ago and she hasn't seemingly moved on since.

Finally this idea of fitness regime is nonsense. It ain't her fitness that gets exposed by the pros it's her movement. Heaven knows it's been obvious for years - she used to practise at Sandra Golding's house years ago and Sandra (Oliver's mum) pointed that out to her mother even then. She was at that stage able to dominate her opponents through her power and no-one seemed to pay any attention to that part of her game.Quite what her more recent coaches have been up to in this regard is anybody's guess.

She has time on her side but needs to stop blaming her coach and work on the obvious (unless of course it's still her mother Kathy who calls the shots).

Mouratoglou still runs an academy though, so perhaps she felt she would be better off out of an academy environment and appoint a full time professional coach to accompany her to each tournament (I'm not sure this happens as of yet, she tends to just be supported by her mother).

He was her coach, but he had plenty of other commitments besides her.

I don't think I would look at this as a 'sacking' but I know that was originally written to provoke a response as it sounds more dramatic.

djlovesyou wrote:Mouratoglou still runs an academy though, so perhaps she felt she would be better off out of an academy environment and appoint a full time professional coach to accompany her to each tournament (I'm not sure this happens as of yet, she tends to just be supported by her mother).

He was her coach, but he had plenty of other commitments besides her...

That might be it - she cut a lonely figure at the ITF $50,000 Indian Harbour Beach, FL 2011 tournament:

Nore Staat wrote:
Re: British Ladies Watch: ITF Tournaments (02 to 08 May 2011)
by Nore Staat on Fri 06 May 2011, 10:45 pm

Laura wins 6-3 7-5 but she limps towards the net to shake the hand of her opponent, limps back to her chair, gathers her stuff then limps off with no trainer/medic in sight. I hope she will get the right medical treatment / advice it would be a shame if the same thing happens to her as happened to Lisa Whybourn. It would be a surprise if she were able to make the next round fitness wise.

Clijsters just hired her old coach, Carl Maes, back.

Ana Ivanovic is again looking for a coach (Gunthardt, van Grichen gone).

Jankovic improved after access to Cahill but he is not available to Ana.

Perhaps Carlos Rodriguez (Henin's old coach) is available to Laura or Safina's old coach Zeljko Krajan.

Sod fired Pistolesi on the eve of Madrid.

Hope they all find good coaches.

Edit: Some of them have found coaches.

I read in one paper today that she'll be working with Sven Groeneveld (hope I've spelt that right) over Wimbledon.
Without being in the situation or knowing anything about it it's hard to make a judgment about whether Laura has done the right thing or not. We don't really know what sort of relationship they had either (in the professional sense of the word), and that's one of the most important things for a player-coach arrangement to work, however good the player or the coach.

Sven Groeneveld is Ana Ivanovic's ex-coach and is also related to Adidas Player Development program (same as Cahill).

I hope this is all being done for the right reasons.

Her mother has an unfortunate track record of hiring and firing as she sees fit. Also she won't like the fact that Watson is getting all the attention and doubtless thinks her Laura should be up there already as well.

Once Laura is old enough to make her own decisions maybe we'll see more continuity in her coaching.